Day 5-Our Favorite Art Supplies: Gel Mediums and More!

Welcome to Day 5 of "Our  Favorite Things - Art Supplies!" Series.  In no particular order; Jodi, Penny, and Jean will take turns sharing a few of their creative must-haves.

Jodi here for day 5 of our ReMe favorite supplies countdown.  I think I'm probably cheating because I'm lumping tons of things that I love within my posts and counting them as one thing, but oh well.. :)  Today I'm featuring  what I'll just refer to as "Mediums" for acrylic paints.    Brands can vary but I can see from my collection which is probably just a bit larger than the average bear, that I prefer Liquitex and Golden products for my mediums.   

Again, these are well loved and used quite regularly.  I do love to do special textural tricks with my mediums and have used many in my various classes.  Using some mediums in classes can be tricky as the dry time or curing time can vary from a few hours to a couple of days or weeks.

I get it.  It can be sooooo overwhelming to understand what does what with what. :)  And no, you do not need all of these to create fantastic pieces. However, if you are trying to move from flat to a more textured look,  acrylic mediums are a great option.

Here's one that every acrylic painter should have--Gesso.  There are many brands to choose from. This is a tiny bottle, it's a travel bottle for me. My actual gesso is gallon pail!!!!  Used to prime your surface and create a ground to which to paint on, it's also can be used to paint over mistakes and not waste more expensive paint trying to cover up something.  Veil over collages with a wash of gesso or scrape into thicker layers for a sgraffito look,  you name it, you can probably do it with gesso.

Another must have  in my opinion is glazing medium.  While you can (and I do) add water to acrylic paint, if you add too much it will break down the paint and dull your colors.  Add glazing medium to thin out your paint, and you will keep the brightness of the paint plus create a translucency when you layer over another color.

On many of my larger pieces, I will use a mixture of satin and matte varnish to finish my work.  This part can be tricky, too, if you use a lot of drawing media or water soluble media over top of your work. If you add a varnish without a barrier layer (or 2 or 3), your dry media will smear.  I use a spray varnish or fixative before I varnish with several days of dry time in between (ideally) the spray coat and wet varnish.

Over the years, I've educated myself by diving in and playing with the mediums,  reading the specs on the manufacturers websites  (check out Golden and Liquitex for lots of information), and studying books like Acrylic Revolution by Nancy Reyner or Rethinking Acrylics by Patti Brady.  Definitely buy books like these, take technique based classes (I know...everyone wants a pretty project but sometimes you just have to learn the basics!!!), and or read through the websites mentioned previously so you can make an informed decision on what you will need to create a look you are desiring.  

So what are some things you can do with gel mediums?

*Create stone like surfaces
*Use as adhesives
*Add to paint to create thinner or thicker applications
*Prime and tone surfaces
*Create a porous or non porous surface for your substrate
*Create faux finishes
*Use for image transfers
*Create dimension using stencils or other templates
*Scrape into and create patterns
*Drip tar like strings onto a canvas (think Jackson Pollock)
*Create transparency or on the opposite end, increase opacity
*Layer with one another to create untold amount of fascinating effects!

*Matte medium and Polymer Varnish used to create this image transfer of my niece (plus transfer images of several papers you can see on the left).

Many layers of glazes  and  dimensional texture created from gel mediums  (samples from my projects found on Extreme Portraits)

I used  pouring medium and tar gel for glass like finishes on my abstract textural samplers from my class "Texturize This".  

Here I use a soft body gel medium to create dimension from a stencil and gesso to veil over layers and layers of paint.  

More  effects to create the illusion of depth using glazing medium,  veiling effects using matte medium, and a top coat of self leveling gel to create a glossy/glass like surface.

Really, the sky is the limit!  

I can't live without my acrylic mediums.  

Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic but they do make me excited to see what can come of the various uses of each and every one of them!

So for your question of the day---do you have a favorite medium that you like to use when painting or collaging (or whatever you are doing)?  Or, is there something that you'd like to learn about?  Curious minds want to know~!

For your chance to win our Fabulous ReMe Favorites Prize Package, please post your answer to the question below in the comments section.  You'll also earn an extra entry for each time you share this post on social media.  Just be sure to post a link to your share here for us to count your extra entries.  (All entries must be received by 12:00 Noon, EST, on September 3, 2015.)

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